Savannah River lab has 30-day reprieve

Still, employees of the UGa ecology facility are planning to close it.

Rob Pavey

AUGUSTA - The University of Georgia's beleaguered Savannah River Ecology Lab won a 30-day reprieve Thursday from its planned closing, but its remaining employees are still preparing for the worst.

"My understanding, at this point, is that UGA will be paying everybody until the end of June, but we don't know what will happen after that," said Paul Bertsch, the lab's director.

The 56-year-old lab at Savannah River Site, which earned international acclaim for research into the impact of radioactivity on the environment, was earmarked for closure in 2005, when the U.S. Energy Department proposed eliminating its $7.7 million annual budget entirely.

Intervention by members of Congress succeeded in restoring a partial budget of $4.5 million, but that funding has dwindled even more in recent months and a cooperative agreement signed with the university last fall provided only $1.8 million from DOE that would end this fall.

Bertsch said efforts to secure outside funding through research grants haven't generated enough revenue to operate the facility.

U.S. senators and House members from Georgia and South Carolina have asked Congress to explore ways to keep the lab open, and letters of support have come from dozens of scientists and research institutions, in addition to the National Wildlife Federation and former President Carter.

Carter's letter to Energy Secretary Sam Bodeman asks that he "reach across traditional political boundaries" to find a way to preserve the laboratory and its legacy.